Below is this week’s News Quiz. When the proctor says “go,” please circle the correct answer and provide a brief explanation for your choice.

1) Last week, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards attended a dinner in New York for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Northeast region. Why did the two attend?

1. They enjoy kosher chicken.
   
2. They didn’t want to miss a chance to hear Sen. Charles Schumer speak.
   
3. Both are running for president, and asserting their pro-Israel credentials with a traditionally generous roomful of campaign donors is smart politics.

2) Both Clinton and Edwards have said that Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear power. This sentiment goes over well with AIPAC supporters because:

1. They are arch opponents of nuclear proliferation.
   
2. They get turned on by tough talk by Democrats.
   
3. They take seriously threats from Iran’s Holocaust-denying president to “wipe Israel off the map.”

3) Last month Wesley Clark, the retired general and former presidential candidate, explained why he thinks the United States is headed toward war with Iran. “You just have to read what’s in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided, but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers that the U.S. government will have to attack Iran.” Jewish communal officials were outraged because:

1. They don’t live in New York and felt slighted.
   
2. Clark is only one-quarter Jewish.
   
3. Clark took a grain of truth — that many generous campaign contributors in the Jewish community are sounding alarm bells over Iran — and concocted a conspiratorial myth that, should the U.S. launch a military operation in Iran, the main and perhaps only reason is that politicians were beholden to rich Jews.

4) In a recent article defending Clark, writer Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect charged that “it’s true that major Jewish organizations are trying to push the country into war.” This statement seems incendiary because:

1. The American Prospect is must reading at the White House.
2. “Clark and Yglesias” sounds like a brand of cigars.
3. Yglesias provides no evidence for this charge.

Discussion: Let’s be honest — concerns about Iran have reached a fever pitch within the American-Jewish establishment. But Yglesias’ statement suggests that the major Jewish organizations are insisting that war is the only answer and implies that Jews have the means to “push the country into war.” To tackle the first point: Groups like the ADL and neoconservative pundits like William Kristol have not abandoned the idea that Iran can be contained via sanctions and other means. The ADL’s Web site, under its “The Iranian Threat” banner, lists five non-military ways to contain Iran. Similarly, Kristol thinks the United States must keep its options open, because “the only way diplomatic, political, and economic pressure has a chance to work over the next months is if the military option — or various military options — are kept on the table.”

As for the second point, both pro-Israel activists and their mean-spirited critics need to look honestly at the consequences of their words and actions. On the pro-Israel side, activists need to acknowledge that their deep and justified concerns over Israel are going to put them on a collision course with those who would avoid a military confrontation with Iran. They needn’t be defensive about using the tools of American democracy to make their views heard and shouldn’t cry “anti-Semitism” when others note their clout.

As for the critics, go ahead and make your case against invading Iran. But don’t make Jews the scapegoats for decisions that will be made by powerful others.